After Peters's unfortunate loss against Fsh, we started training like never before. For the 6 months, we followed a strict training schedule.

  Every day, we would go out at 5 in the m, and jog until Peter and Ned had to go to school.

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  I fug khis was a horrible idea. I stand in the rain, alone, shivering my bones off. I look down at my wristwatch. 5:03. These guys better not skip on me. I swear if that determination was a oime thing...

  I stand there chattering my teeth in the cold for a few more minutes.

  Peter stumbles out of his house, dressed in a casual hoodie and sants, like he does this often. His face though, tells a different story.

  Peter's hair is a plete mess, poking out in ways that I didn't even think possible, his eyes have dark circles reag down to his cheekbones, and it's rapidly blinking as if he's trying to get used to the light. He looks like he's regretting every decision he's made that led him to this pce, this moment.

  I would have expected Peter to be a m person, but apparently not.

  "Yo" I hold my hand forward, attempting to dap him up, but he looks down at it, and grunts.

  "Bro, did you even sleep?" I ask him, as this trasted so much with the usual Peter I knew.

  "Sleep? What's that? What's a 'sleep'?" Peter responds groggily. (a/n i xxxTenta here)

  I look at him in awe. "What were you doing all night???? Bro, I'm about to die, and I slept at 11!"

  "Unlike you, I'm still a student. I 't just drop out with the money I made from stocks like your unemployed ass... I had to stay up all night doing assigs."

  ht, I fot this body should still be in high school. I don't care though. What's the point of a piece of paper and a handshake if aliens are gonna invade in a year?

  Just then, we heard heavy footsteps approag through the light drizzle of the m. It was ned. He seemed to be sleepwalking, or sleepwaddling, still ed up in his bs, and it looked like he was still in his Star yjamas. I facepalm. At least he's wearing some kind of shoes judging the footsteps.

  Pete looks at him exasperatedly. "You pn to run in that?"

  The only response he gets is a gre through the many yers of bs.

  "you are literally the one who wao train with us after seeie's fight dude." I snark at him.

  He sends anre at me before finally opening his mouth. "I didn't know training involved waking up at the usual time that I go to sleep." he groaned out.

  "Well, you're already here, so might as well get on with it. Also, just telling you, you won't like the part. Here, Pete, ake these." I hand them 8 10-pound sandbags in total, 4 for each of them.

  I lift my sleeves and pantlegs showing them how to wear them. "I bought these st night after making the training schedule. Right now, we are using 10 pounds, but I have up to 30. now, put these on, a's get running. oal is to hit 5 miles in the hour and a half."

  They look at me as if I've lost my mind. Ned just stares at me, while Peter at least tries to put the sandbags on.

  "Look, most high schoolers run a mile in 7-8 mihat means they run 5 miles in like 45 minutes. But since were training with extra weight, were doing 1 hour and 30 mihis shouldn't be that difficult. Now move! Let's get going! We gotta finish before you guys have to go to school!"

  After another 5 minutes of pestering and ving Ned, we finally started running. I started tret it almost immediately. Running 4 10-pound sandbags is the equivalent of running while carrying a pte. (a/n the workout kind of pte that you stito a benchpress btw. big, fat, 45lbs.)

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  10 minutes into the run...

  The sound of our soaked sneakers spping against the pavement echoed through the empty streets. Rain drizzled down is, soaking through my hoodie, my sants, my soul. My legs felt like they were about to fall off, being weighed down by der blocks. Oh wait, they were. Forty pounds of sandbags strapped to my limbs, each step making me regret every life decision that led me to this moment.

  It doesn't look like the uys are doier...

  I look back. were all running in a single file line, with Peter a few meters behind me, aailing behind us by like 100 meters.

  Behind me, I could hear Pete's ragged breaths and him muttering something iween them. I steady my breathing to listen more clearly.

  "I'm gonna kill him *huff* I'm gonna kill him *wheeze* I'm gonna kill him" He mutters over and over.

  I pale. Maybe f them to go on m torture sessions wasn't the best way to blossom our friendship.

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  30 minutes into the run

  In front of us, we could see a figure slowly shambling.

  It was ned. we pped him.

  as we passed him, he wheezed "I think it's the end of the road for me... Tell my parents that I love them." before colpsing into the grass.

  "Dude! it's only been 30 minutes! you still have to go for 1 hour!" I try to get him back up on his feet.

  Ned gets up, shambles a few more meters, and colpses again.

  "Fiake like a 5-minute break a back to it."

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  1 hour into the run

  "A-Alex I don't know if I keep doing this... I think I see the light..." Peter huffed.

  "I see it too. I think we're dying. That's just the sun rising dumbass!" I snap babsp;

  Peter looks as if he's one foot into the grave. His body looks like it should have stopped w 1 mile ago, but is holding on with pure determination.

  We just finished our 3rd p, and we see Ned sprawled up the ground. At least he fihe p he was on.

  Peter stumbled over o Ned, and colpsed as well.

  I guess it's only me now.

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  End of the run

  were all sprawled out on the ground. I made it to 4.5 miles, but I couldn't finish, taking my restraints off and walked the rest of the way.

  people might call me a loser fiving up, but then I would tell them to try for themselves. I was at the end of the rope, oep away from my lungs exploding, not figuratively.

  Ned colpsed at 2 miles, Pete at 3, a 4 and a half. I was so close to the goal. I fell right on the grass of the park we were cirg, face first, o peter and ned. Not even g if I eat a little dirt. That was the least of my s. My biggest was to make sure that my lungs still worked after that hell of a workout.

  "Hey, Alex?" Peter huffed out. "I think we o tone dowensity a little."

  "No. If we keep doing this, we'll improve. By week, you'll be able to run ara mile. By the week after that, you'll be able to finish the 5 miles. And by the , your muscles will have more endurahan Fsh."

  Peter was about to pin but shut his mouth when I mentioned Fsh.

  Then it was Ned's turn to pin.

  "Yo Alex, let me sck a little here. Pleaseeeee dude," he whined, dragging out the please. "Like, I'm not tryna be a superhero like you or Peter! Well, I am... But I'm n to fight in the front lines! I'm trying to be like the man in the chair you know? I don't think I need all this gruelling training."

  "Oh, good idea! Then you'll keep on doing the same training, but you'll also be learning hag!" I said excitedly, remembering how useful Jarvis was to Tony.

  Ned only looked at me with pleading, half-dead eyes, before slowly crawling away.

  "Where you going?" asked Peter, now with slightly more life, after lying on the grass for 30 minutes.

  "I'm going to go buy a wheelchair for school." Replied ned, still crawling away.

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  And every day for the st 6 months, we had to gh this shit. I was able to raise my weight all the to 30 pounds, while Pete could get 20, but always was faster than me usually making 5 miles in 50 minutes, being a mility-based character. Ned, however, Had a lot more trouble than us, because his base weight robably double mine. He was still able to finish the 5 miles with 20 pounds though. Even if it took 2 hours.

  After a few days of doing this, I actually got a new quest!

  [Quest Alert: On Your Left!]

  [Specialize your training!]

  [Reward: Strength/Durability/Agility +1]

  Oh haha, I get the name reference! (a/n those who know :skull)

  Anyways, it said specialize your training, but I wasn't so sure what that meant. Peter also got the same quest, but not Ned. I think it's because Peter's in my party, but not Ned.

  [ Party {Peter Parker} Quest Alert: On Your Left!]

  [Specialize your training!]

  [Reward: Strength/Durability/Agility +1]

  Me aer both spent hours w what it meant by "Specialize" but we only got it once we fihe quest at the end of the 6 month training period.

  [Ding!]

  [Quest plete: On your left!]

  [You maxed out the weights, specializing in strength.]

  [Reward Received: Strength +1]

  [Ding!]

  [Party {Peter Parker} Quest plete: On your left!]

  [You maxed out your speed, specializing in agility.]

  [Reward Received: Agility +1]

  "Nice!!!"x2

  Me ae high-five. After half a year of training together, Me, Peter, and Ned have bee best best friends. Especially me aer were really close.

  This is because after what we decided to call "5 AM HELL", our raining program was the boxing gym. After the guys went to school, we would meet up at the boxing gym from st time. We all went together, but in the end, it was usually me aer boxing and w out while Ned was sitting in the er practig hag.

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  (a/n the first part got too long so imma split it into two ses. ill finish the training ard the results chap. yall guess what the arc is?)